Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Other Half got for me a stand mixer yay! ♥ Not a fancy schmancy one, no metal bowl. Just a basic mixer. One which I think if Junior were to use and spoil it, I won't mind. HAHA. I wanted to get a Philips mixer but I got Kenwood instead. Have yet to unwrap it haha. Now I can whip cream and eggs! Frosting here I come! But before that... My first experiment shall be Marble Cake using Optima Flour ! Or if I'm feeling adventurous, Chocolate Banana Cake , something which Other Half would very much prefer. Heh. Here's to many more cakes! :)

So today was supposed to be day 3 or 29 but I overslept. Bummer. Junior has been disturbing my sleep a lot lately. He doesn't really sleep in the day, and at night, he can wake up every hour, sometimes a few times in an hour. Long gone are the days I had uninterrupted sleep. Yesterday Other Half wanted to eat lemak cili padi again after my successful lemak cili padi tenggiri attempt . Haha. But he wanted to cook it this time round, so I can attend to our little mister cranky and feed him dinner. I prepared all the ingredients, cut them nicely and put into bowls for him to cook. This time round I added more red chili cos I wanted to finish them and they weren't hot anyway so might as well. And more cili padi too!! Other Half prefers to blend everything, easy peasy. I on the other hand, prefer to tumbuk the chili using batu lesung just like my mum does it. To me the flavours kinda disappear when you blend. Hence more chili? Hahaha. So I let Other Half cook, and he wanted t...

Day two, insyaAllah. This time I planned my sahur earlier and with more food and water! Muahaha. On the day I decide to fast, there's free good food. Like epok-epok my colleague brought. And new tidbits from another colleague. And sandwich and suji from the wife of yet another colleague! Drools. But I get to eat the suji at least! She brought these cookies for me yay! Hmm does that mean I have to bring something in return? Such a nice lady, I have yet to meet her! :) My eyes are dry, from the lack of sleep. Woke up at 5am and didn't sleep back. And at night Junior didn't really want to sleep. He kept waking up after like 10 minutes of sleep between midnight and 1+am, finally slept after singing to him. He's getting VERY active too! Cannot sit still! So adorable, such a handful! Husband says he's not a handful, he's two hands full. Hahahaha ♥

So the four day weekend has come and gone. Way to fast! Sadness. Day one was quite fruitful yet packed. Morning I did laundry (I think? I've done laundry waayyyy to many times over the weekend I forgot!) and entertained my chubbycheeks. Afternoon we went to fetch in-laws and had lunch at Sabar Menanti which somehow wasn't that good on that day for some reason, and then sent them somewhere. Then we went Mustafa's which was kinda crowded and then to my mum's house to rot and celebrate Brother's twenty-fifth birthday. Sister made hazelnut cake and yes! She bakes! Hahaha. Hazelnut cake with Smuckers chocolate syrup and crushed roasted hazelnuts. Yumyum. Day two was spent at FFL (YK)'s home, made opera cake and had Indian food for dinner. Husband had a meeting most of the afternoon, bummer. I didn't really take part in the baking cos I was babysitting, how to babysit and make a cake?! Actually I can, I've been doing it all along but that's at home,...

So yesterday we were on half day cos Husband wasn't feeling too well. Went back, and felt like pre-Junior days. Even so, I have become so accustomed to Junior, I kept expecting to hear a baby crying. Hahaha. While Husband was resting... I baked! And did laundry. I can never resist doing laundry when I see the sun shining so brightly. Husband almost forbid me to do laundry, saying I need to rest too since I'm fasting, but in the end he gave in. Teeheehee. I tried Ultimate Chocolate Cake by Angela Nilsen from bbcgoodfood.com. I am on the hunt for awesome chocolate cake recipes! I planned to do the ganache but have yet to do so cos I ran out of chocolates haha. You can refer to the website for the original ingredients, but below is what I actually used (some measurements are different cos I don't have weighing scale and proper measuring instruments). Ingredients: 200g good quality dark chocolate = I used 2 bars of Hershey's (finally finished using them!) one 60% o...

Weewoo we're going Langkawi this March!! :))) It'll be our second family holiday, and the first airplane ride for Junior. He'll be eight months by then, should be okay for him. I have to think of activities for him on the plane, and on the trip too! Unless he sleeps through the flight. Hahaha. Today is the first of twenty-nine days I have to pay back for fasting. And at 9am I was so freaking hungry my stomach keeps growling very very loudly. Oh God twenty-nine!!! *faints* The last time I fasted was like a year and a half ago? Hahaha. That is looonnggg . I hope my milk supply won't dwindle. InsyaAllah.

I have been browsing gmarket once in a while, with Shez & Juni but I have yet to buy anything from there. Until today!!! I found the cutest measuring set ! I'm on the lookout for measuring cups and spoons, and this is just too cute to resist! Cheap too! So I got for myself one set! See! Soooo cute! Hahaha. I wonder when it'll arrive though. Can't wait! :) I wanna look for bundt pans next!

Omg omg omg I am so so excited!! You must be thinking I'm crazy to go crazy over a measuring cup, but it's no ordinary measuring cup okay! It's the kind that can measure all sorts of dry ingredients in pounds. My mum has it, but it's super duper ancient I thought they wouldn't sell these anymore. Until!!! I was browsing Bake King's website - how I came here, I'll explain in a bit - and I FOUND IT !!! Here it is, the Tala Cook's Measure! Very retro looking (totally love!) and freakin' made in England can! I am so gonna buy it!! I hope the shop has it if not I'll have to order online . I browsed the website and found lots of other things I am so tempted to buy! Heehee. Lucky thing I have loads of cabinet space that can store my baking utensils :) So back to the point where I was directed to Bake King. Yesterday at Husband's grandma's house, she made for us marble cake which I totally love! So moist and soft and airy! So I asked f...

Okay I think I shall skip the outstanding posts I mentioned earlier . Getting out of date already. Haha. Suffice to say, making sugar cookies with difficult mould shapes (like Chip & Dale) is frustrating and tedious, and I haven't found the perfect icing recipe yet. That aside!! I is excited to say I've finally (yes, finally!) perfected my banana cake recipe! Heehee. I have no idea why I couldn't get my mum's recipe to work, maybe cos it's a different oven? But it's almost the same model! Oh well. This time I reduced the butter because the last time it was too oily, and the cake could use a bit more flour. I kept the banana the same cos I love having loads of banana in the cake, rather than use banana essence. Here are my lovelies I brought to work. I didn't capture any pictures while I was baking because I wanted to get it in the oven before Junior gets impatient watching me bake. This was taken with my iPhone. Ingredients : 200g butter 9 oz ...

I've yet to write about the sugar cookie baking session with my siblings (that was Christmas!), baby developments (two teeth!!), work, and the mandatory year-in-review and what I hope for 2012. So far 2012 started off with lots of work! -_- Hope to do so soon! And what's this buzz about Ombak Rindu. I wanna watch it! But sooo many links on YouTube have been removed. Sadness. Okay back to work! I have a ginormous target I set for myself!